Wow. It is taking me awhile to even remember how to use this site? Brain is still working slowly. But working...
Traditional sci fi leads us to believe that time travel could be a good thing. Even a means to do good in the world. Most books dealing with the subject (that I have read) have found bad things about it or problems, but they haven't put the time traveler in the position of always have problems and bad things happen to him. In this book, we see what life could be like for a time traveler especially when he has no control of the travel and he comes through naked every time.... Fascinating, though not usually uplifting.
OK. When I left Florida, I was up to date on this blog but I was also ill with a yeast infection that would not quit. After the trip, I was worse and started on a journey through emergency rooms (you haven't lived until all people working in an emergency room are crowded around to see your bottom). None of the emergency rooms had a dermatologist on staff, not did they have the ability to process cultures. Finally found a dermatologist whose culture told us I had staph. She prescribed Amoxicillin which worked for three or four days and then just quit. Like the staph got it's number. So I suggested Bactrim, which had worked well for me 20 years ago when I had staph following a knee operation. She had me taking 800 mg. three times a day. I think it did kill the staph, but it also sent me into kidney failure. Many thanks to my step daughter for knowing to call 911 immediately and get me to the hospital. I really don't remember much of the whole thing. I was pretty out of it. I remember the ambulance vaguely and I remember getting morphene.
I found out later that while dealing with the kidney failure, I went into A-fib (which sent all hospital personal to my room in the middle of the night), followed by my lungs filling with fluid and giving me breathing problems.) I don't know what all Flower Mound Presbetyrian did, but I remember only 2 breathing treatments before I needed no more. They installed a port for dialysis, but just as I was about to go down for the treatment, my blood showed I no longer needed it. As far as the A-Fib, I was put on three new drugs, two of which I HATE: Elequis and Turosemide. Leaving the hospital I went to a rehab center, which I guess helped, but both facilities ignored my bottom. I think the Bactrim did kill the staph (while also nearly killing me), but the yeast remains and now I have another bacteria and my doctor is reluctant to prescribe any oral antibiotic (though the only one I have ever had trouble with is Bactrim.) So I have a wound nurse coming to my house three times a week and I go to a wound clinic once a week and the dermatologist about every two weeks. (At my age we call that an active social life.) I have a collection of ring pillows, salves and ointments that threaten to squeeze us out of the house. TMI? Sorry. Back to books.
I finished the above book while still in the hospital (June 25 or so) then the next 2 in the rehab center.
The next two books were brought to me while I was a the rehab center by my step-daughter. I don't think I'd have selected this one having given up on Julia Child's biography which I found boring. But this might have been perfect for the rehab center since I was unable to sleep well there (except during the day): sufficiently interesting without putting me on the edge of my seat. Set in England during WWII during very strict war rationing, it recounts a local contest between professional chefs to find a cohost for a cooking radio show. The show host and contestents were interesting and well drawn. Liked it very much.
My step-daughter also brought me this book while I was in rehab and was closer to something I might well have selected for myself. Set in New Orleans during the lead up to the Civil War, a group of women, some free, some slave came together to undermine the Confederacy as much as possible. A very dangerous undertaking. The main character is a slave, but one left to take care of the New Orleans house for long stretches of time while he was tending to business at his out of town plantations. The lead-up to this assignment for her was harrowing causing her great shyness at first with the new-found freedom in N.O. Well drawn characters and naturally fascinating subject matter.
I then returned home on my birthday and returned to War and Peace which I never would have taken to the hospital with me...too heavy. During this next 50 pages, we see our soldiers return to Moscow after a disastrous several battles with the French. But the Russians chose to see the defeat as the fault of a few of their Generals, and instead to celebrate the actions of the normal enlisted men...one in particular. So, resumption of the normal parties, feasts, and balls could go on being given in honor of this one man.
Set on the terriformed and colonized moon, a number of separate villages are growing and, humans being humans, are jealous and resentful of each other with skirmishes occuring often. Our hero, Charles, lived on an island where, unlike the rest of the moon, learning and reading flourished. But the island, Alp, has blown up and he and his brother might be the only survivors. The book chronicles his attempt to find someplace to survive, fit in, and even make peace if possible. I always enjoy Henry Melton's books which make me think.
At this point, my reading slowed immeasurably due to Olympics (I am a huge fan), the presidential conventions (which I watch one of very faithfully), recovering---still slow and sleeping erratically to this day) and catching up on my tv programs (summer cook shows mostly but also the last few ice skating competitions continuing after we got home from Florida.)
I'll end this post since I have dinner to cook, but there are more books to add...
